Page 153 of Taste of Thorns

I keep my face entirely neutral. I don’t know what it is, but something propels me to keep the fact that Briony is our mate secret, for now at least. “That magic was not shadow weaving,” the Empress says.

“She’s a lumomancer. And she has a connection to the dragon. He’s let her ride him.”

The Empress’ brows rise up her forehead. She turns to look at the dragon, her gaze swimming hungrily over him.

“This is a rare find. One the realm sorely needs. Our numbers are dwindling. Our powers weakening. And all the while the demons grow in strength and number. Perhaps this will be the start of something new. A turning point for us all.”

I smile down at Briony, pride swelling my chest. She is brilliant. I knew it right from the start.

“I think you are right.”

As if she hears me, Briony’s eyelids flutter. With affection, I watch them open, but then she’s staring up at me in alarm.

“Beaufort!” she cries out, struggling in my arms. Her head snaps towards the Madame.

The deputy headmistress is staggering to her feet, yanking against Thorne’s shadows as he struggles to contain her. Dray’s wolf growls and barks.

“It is the beginning of nothing at all,” she cries.

Then a rip in the very air appears, a gaping hole revealing something desolate and bleak beyond. The air around us whips and then tugs. The Madame screams and then she’s sliding towards the hole as Thorne attempts to drag her away.

It’s so quick, the rest of us have no time to react. Before we know it, the Madame is leaping through the hole, Thorne now yanked that way too.

“Thorne!” I cry out, as Dray’s wolf leaps forward, gripping Thorne’s pant leg in his jaws and pulling him backward.

The hole sucks at them both as it begins to seal.

“Thorne!” I yell a second time but before he’s pulled through the hole with Bardin, he whips his shadows away just in time.

And then, just like that, the gaping hole in the air closes. The air around us stills once more.

The Madame is gone.

Chapter Fifty-Six

Dray

I snap back to my human form, staring at the place, where only a moment ago, the air itself ripped in two, and the Madame escaped from under our damn noses.

All that remains now is a slight tear in the air, red and glimmering.

“What the fuck was that?” I yell.

Thorne stands right where the air ripped, staring at the space, his arms hanging by his sides, his shoulders heaving, sweat sliding down his face.

“I don’t know,” he says, shaking his head in disbelief, like his eyes have deceived him.

“That was the demon realm,” the Empress says, from the other side of the cave.

“The what?” little Kitten murmurs. She’s on her feet now, but leaning on Beau for support, drained of energy due to that awesome fight with Bardin.

The Empress considers her. “The realm that lies beyond our borders. The wasteland inhabited by demons. The Madame has clearly been working in league with them.”

“What the fuck?” I mutter. I knew the woman was evil, a serial killer and all, but working with the demons? “How is that even possible?”

“There were demons here in the cave when we arrived,” Kitten says.

“Demons? Here?” Beaufort says. “Demons can’t displace like our kind can. That isn’t possible.”